The closer to Pharrell’s latest album, G I R L, just got the visual treatment. Mr. Happy went full-anime, and things get wild.
Contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami tackles the animation duties here. Murakami is perhaps best known to Americans as the creator of Kanye West’s Graduation album artwork. He also directed one of my favorite music videos of all time,“Good Morning”, which served as the introduction to Graduation.
7 years later and Murakami has made his latest foray into American pop culture with this Pharrell collaboration. It’s eye popping and impressively intricate, flip-flopping from video game-esque, to anime, to hand-drawn scenes on collage backgrounds. As someone who played a good deal of Pokémon Blue Version as a kid, there’s definitely a certain element of nostalgia here.
It’s very classically Japanese, and it fits the vibe of Pharrell’s song.
Memo to everyone running auto-pilot on their music videos: Look how cool this is. Instead of doing another music video at a house party, why not try to make something with a little more staying power? Thankfully, Pharrell has always understood this.
Skateboard P is an artist in the truest sense of the word, and here’s further proof. This video is art.